Approximate reading time: 1 minute, 32 seconds
Nothing more universal than the word tribe. That’s where we all are from and where the history of humanity begins. Starting with the towns of ancient Egypt, the caves of Altamira to cities buried under the sand. Thousands of them lost, some immersed in the sea. Tribes settled on the land or in permanent movement, following the humidity. Millennia of history, going from one continent to another. The traces have become oblivion.
The Chilean poet Theodoro Elssaca, in his recent publication, “Tribu de la Palabra” addresses the issue and assumes the commitment, moving away from the rationality of the West. A risk, which he assumes, because his language, rich in metaphors and unexpected twists of language, illuminate each poem. Light coming from distant constellations, which are approaching our planet. Her rhapsodic look and work now acquire energy, which springs from the bowels of the earth. It rises to the sky and merges with the Milky Way.
Theodoro Elssaca
In the 312 pages of this “Tribe of the word”, where the beauty of the edition is privileged, we witness a festival of creativity. The poet, storyteller and traveler of Noah’s Ark, navigates in regions where memory lives. He tours the corners of cities, immersed in oblivion and about to disappear. Nothing is foreign to him and this search is reflected in his pupil. Towns abandoned by plagues or destroyed by wars. Cemetery of a lost civilization, whose destiny is to be eclipsed. Nothing about geography is foreign to him and the poets he admires are reborn from the ashes. He dedicates a trova to countless of them. Long days of an unexpected trip, where he writes: “Months or years will pass and you will return to read those distant lost verses and check if they withstand time.” Page 195.
Theodoro Elssaca, an expert in the geography of the five continents and other places that do not appear on official maps, recreates worlds where the word is barely known. As the vate is a member of a tribe based in the Middle East, his vision of the world acquires breadth, commitment and wisdom, inherited through the millennia. Caravans that have traveled the width of the world, carrying culture from one end to the other, the spices of language. From there springs the singularity of his luminous poetry; stories, haikus and essays. Kaleidoscope of works or spring of swarms, whose breadth and beauty make him a creator, of recognized originality.
In recent months, his name has been included in the candidacy for the Chilean National Literature Prize, which will be awarded in September of this year. Fertile writer, whose work for years has gravitated towards Castilian poetry, which, in his hands, has sown seeds in new generations.
By Walter Garib